August 18, 2007

August 18, 2007

With only a plug-in cooler to keep our food cold we need electricity every night. There are no private parks within many miles of Banff. Unlike the US, Canadian National Parks have RV hookups. Banff NP has two fairly large parks with electricity but they sell out quickly during peak season. We want to get the worm so we rise early and head to Lake Louise, only thirty minutes northwest on Canada’s Hwy 1. We are in luck and get a spot for tonight. Now we can relax and enjoy the area without worrying.

We head first to Moraine Lake about eight miles down a side road. We hike atop a rock hill to get a good view of it. It is gorgeous. It sits in a horseshoe shaped mountain alcove that was gouged out by a long-gone glacier. The blue color is so stunning it looks fake. Similar to the artificial algaecide color of golf-course ponds. The beauty of this lake is attraction enough. As an added bonus there are quite a few interpretative signs pointing out fossil remains in the rocks.

From Moraine we head to the main draw, Lake Louise. It is a picture-perfect lake. It is almost perfectly oval, the milky teal color of glacial lakes, pine forests on the sides, with sheer mountains and small glaciers at the far end and a premier chalet at this end. An artist couldn’t paint a better scene. I have to take a lot of pictures. The only improvement would be eliminating the last vestiges of the forest fire haze.

Our exercise today is hiking up the north side of Lake Louise to Lake Agnes. It is a straight up hill climb for an hour. Aimee doesn’t mind because of the teahouse at the top. We celebrate our summit with tea and biscuits while looking back down at Lake Louise. It looks so tiny from up here. It is a good thing we got here early, as Lake Louise is jammed to the gills now.

Back in the town of Lake Louise we stop at the visitor center where they have a fairly large set of displays about the geology and formation of the Canadian Rockies. It is quite nice.

The air seems to be getting a little clearer so Aimee and I take the RV on a leisurely drive some 30 miles farther north along Canada’s Icefields Parkway. We turn around at the Crowfoot Glacier Viewpoint on Bow Lake. The road between Banff and Jasper is the most beautiful I have ever driven. No wonder it is a World Heritage Site. We will come back again, only next time in the off-season when most of these tourists are gone. Glacier NP in the US was very nice but Banff is more spectacular and much more accessible. We get an extra treat on this drive. Aimee spots a small black bear walking in the ditch on the side of the highway.